Brown 'happy' to continue as Chancellor

Gordon Brown sought to play down his leadership ambitions yesterday, saying that he did not need to be Prime Minister to be proud of his achievements.

On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the fabled leadership pact in the Granita restaurant in Islington with Tony Blair, the Chancellor said he was "very happy" to continue under Mr Blair.

Mr Brown's comments were clearly meant to be supportive of Mr Blair, but he also managed to convey the message that he was proud of his own personal record.

"I am very happy, as I have always been, to serve under Tony Blair," he said. "It is a team which has served the Labour Party and the country well in the years that we have been working together. That is now 21 years.

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"What I concentrate on and will continue to concentrate on is the job that I am doing, the policies we are trying to develop, the changes we are making in the country.

"Let's be honest, it is not the office you hold that matters, it is what you actually do. And that is why I am happy to continue the job I am doing and will continue the job I am doing as Chancellor."

Mr Brown's comments are unlikely to convince many at Westminster that there are not plans for a handover of power from Mr Blair to the Chancellor at some point.

Mr Blair fuelled the speculation yesterday that he may stand down shortly after the next general election when he refused to pledge to serve a full third term.

In an interview with the Daily Mirror, the Prime Minister said that the reason he could not give such a pledge was that he did not want to appear like Lady Thatcher, "going on and on and on".

He promised to lead the Labour Party into the next general election saying: "Am I up for doing it? Yes I am. There is no shortage of desire on my part to carry on and do the job. I do this job because I believe in what I am doing and I have to say I enjoy doing the job."

He resisted, however, the calls of those in his party who want him to make it explicit that he will serve a full third term. "The reason I try to answer that carefully is you always end up with headlines saying I am going on and on and on - that Thatcher business.

"It sounds arrogant and I don't feel that I am just going to go on and on for the sake of it. And whether I am Prime Minister after the next election is ultimately a decision for the British people."

The Prime Minister has consistently promised to stand for, but not necessarily serve, a third term. Speculation about his intentions was fuelled by John Prescott recently when he acknowledged that the "tectonic plates" were shifting and that Cabinet ministers were repositioning themselves for a succession.

Mr Prescott said: "As a party we are concerned to get continuity between these stages and keep Labour in office."

Privately there is a growing consensus among supporters of both Mr Blair and Mr Brown that there will be a hand-over within the first two years of the next Parliament.